AP govt to issue fresh notification for selection of Amaravati developer

Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday revised its stand on a notification it had issued for selection of master developer for the start-up area of Amaravati Capital City.

The government has informed Hyderabad High Court that it would withdraw the earlier notification and issue a fresh notification based on an amended legislation, which deals with the Swiss Challenge procedure.

The matter came up before the division bench headed by chief justice Ramesh Ranganrathan, which was hearing the government's very appeal filed against the stay orders passed by a single judge bench on the earlier notification.

It may be recalled that on July 17, the state government's nodal agency AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) had invited counter proposals from companies to the one submitted by a consortium of Singapore-based companies in respect of the development of 6.84 square km start-up area in Amaravati under Swiss Challenge route.

The consortium was formed by Ascendas-Singbridge Pte Limited, and Sembcorp Development Limited.

However, on September 12 justice M S Ramachandra Rao of Hyderabad High Court had issued stay orders on the notification even after the government had made some modifications to the original notification based on the observations made by the court during the hearing.

The petitioners, who had challenged notification, pointed out that the government had followed the sealed tender procedure instead of making the offer( in this case the share of gross profits offered to the government) of the original project proponent(OPP) known to the interested persons up front.

But the state government had filed an appeal against the single judge orders while stating that it had simply followed the procedures laid down in an existing state Act. Even though both the sides have been presented their detailed arguments before the division bench on this matter, the government has recently brought a set of amendments to the AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2001 under which the notification in question was issued.

Appearing before the division bench on Wednesday, AP Advocate General Dammalapati Srinivas informed the judges that the government would issue a fresh notification based on the amended legislation. The court closed the case after the advocate general informed the government's decision on this matter.